Rent

I went to see a local production of the musical Rent on Wednesday. I seriously enjoyed it - sure the actors were out of tune sometimes but it made me laugh and cry and not want it to end so I think they did their job!

It brought up a conversation with the two people I went with - they're probably about 10 years older than me, so they were a little more aware/alive when the AIDS epidemic was happening in the 80s and early 90s. My parents have always told me about friends of theirs who died from AIDS but I wasn't really aware of how severe the situation was until I visited San Francisco earlier this year and visited Castro with one of my dad's friends. I didn't realise how the community was decimated by this illness that no one knew how to treat. (We still don't have a complete cure, just drugs to suppress it if you have the money to pay for them.)

I think it's interesting how this big event seems to have disappeared from the Western public's consciousness so quickly. Sure, we've all seen the bowling ball grim reaper ads, but I'm sure we think that it would never happen to anyone we know, that that only happens in Africa now, and I think people my age find it hard to imagine what it was like to be living when the epidemic was going on.

I'm planning on checking out this documentary about the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, have a look at the trailer if you're interested in hearing about it.

Watch 'We Were Here' Revisits San Francisco's 80's AIDS Epidemic on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.